Amazon will open a pop-up clothing boutique in London, with a different theme each day

News | 15.10.2018

In its first venture into European brick-and-mortar, Amazon is opening a fashion-focused pop-up shop on London’s Baker Street from next Tuesday, Oct. 23, until Saturday, Oct. 27.

According to the Evening Standard, the store will feature clothing from Amazon’s mainstream brand partners like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Aldo, as well as its own brands, including Find, Truth & Fable, and Meraki. Shoppers can purchase the clothing via the Amazon app or in the store itself.

The e-commerce giant has dabbled in physical retail before, launching a handful of book shops and grocery stores in the US over the past several years. And in September, it opened a retail store in New York City called Amazon 4-star, which only sells items that have been awarded at least four stars out of five by Amazon customers.

The London shop will reportedly be more immersive, and in addition to featuring on-site stylists will highlight a different category of Amazon’s fashion department each day. Tuesday will focus on autumn and winter trends, Wednesday on beauty, Thursday on fitness and wellbeing (spotlighting Amazon’s ballooning athleisure department), while Friday and Saturday will focus on street and party wear.

Amazon’s fashion fever

While this is the company’s first foray into brick-and-mortar apparel, it has been investing in fashion for over a decade.

Amazon acquired the retail site Shopbop back in 2006 and launched menswear site East Dane in 2013, before acting as a marquee sponsor of New York Fashion Week: Men’s in 2015. Its online flash-sales site MyHabit shuttered in 2016, but the company has continued to double down on fashion by launching a number of private-label brands.

Research firm Corseight Research ranked Amazon as the biggest US clothing retailer after Walmart, based on merchandise volume, mainly due to its massive third-party marketplace.

And while thus far it has largely failed to get luxury brands to sell on the site, it seems with this pop-up it hopes to show that as far as fashion goes, it has just about everything else.